The Mailbag

by SonDog

Not to sound like Giants' manager, Felipe Alou (who is the king of beginning every sentence with, "I believe..."), but I believe last night was officially "Rock Bottom" night for the Sacramento Kings. I believe that in losing their fourth consecutive home game (something that they haven't done since 1997/1998), the Kings looked like a team that has tuned out its coach. I believe they looked like a team that had Rocky's choke collar around its neck in the fourth quarter. I believe they looked slow and old and every other word you would reserve for describing bad basketball teams.

Last night's game against the Houston Rockets was a game the Kings ABSOLUTELY had to win. True, there are other games that they have had to win. But this one was absolute. No doubt, the team absolutely needed a win. After all five starters were benched against a home loss to Minnesota, and then coming back with a disinterested, listless effort in a home loss against the Cleveland Cavs, everyone (at least the fans) seemingly understood that if the Kings did not win against Houston, the Maloof brothers would surely unleash a nuclear holocaust on the team (or at least start with firing the coach, hence last night's game being described around Sacramento as, "Save-Your-Coach's-Job-Night!")

Basically, the Kings blew a 14-point, second half lead and choked away the game in the fourth quarter. After returning from a business trip to Denver, I came home to find all sorts of emails regarding the state of affairs in Sacramento. Here's the best of the bunch:

From Stapes in San Francisco: Man, I didn't think it could get this bad. They need a road trip bad as ARCO is killing them. They are pressing too much and now the schedule won't help having to play San Antonio and Detroit. What they need is one of those Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington trips. I finally got all pissed-off and started throwing shit last night. They are in serious need of a shake up, but the only two things you can do are fire Adelman or trade Peja. They need something to give them a spark. I don't see how any minor tweaks such as putting Skinner in the rotation can turn this around. Last night I was even thinking they could activate Sampson and send that rookie point guard to the d-league.

Here's why - Bibby and Bonzi are getting beat off the dribble. Bibby we know about, but I didn't expect that to happen to Bonzi. We always hear he's tough and fearless and blah blah. He's also slow. So when they get beat there is no one to protect the rim to challenge shots and commit fouls. It's a total lay-up drill right now. Guys taking it to the rim are hurting them more than athletic big guys and rebounding are right now. Although both of those are still problems. It's not an easy fix and it's basically a fucked up situation. On offense they are super reliant on Bibby, Miller and Peja making jumpers. They don't run so basically they need all three of them to shoot a high percentage.

First the giants sucked all year and now this. 2005 was not our year.

From Kari in Sacramento: As seen on Highway 50 in Sacramento: I remember that on September 11, 2001, patriots hung American flags over this particular freeway overpass off of Highway 50. Today, though freeway patriotism has dwindled in the capital city, anger still reigns. As seen on the same freeway overpass scrawled on a bed-sheet:

FIRE Adelman.

From OZ in Sacramento: I was actually excited to get up this morning to check if Elston Turner was the new interim head coach. Oh well. Hopefully soon.

Last night was painful to watch. I think I may sue for sleep deprivation due to horrifying basketball.